New York Times on the Web Forums

A.M. Rosenthal: A Family of Eight

Share your thoughts on recent articles by columnist A.M. Rosenthal.

Go to Rosenthal's Op-Ed on the importance of family values.

StSava - May 6, 1997 EST (#1 of 3)

In response to ÒA Family of Eight.Ó

What a disgusting betrayal of the readers of the New York Times and to this forum that the Times once again displays the utter contempt that you have for those who took the time to response to ÒRosenthal's Fascist Croatia.Ó You don't seem to have even the common courtesy or the morals to notify the participants that you were planning to trash all of our postings. Were the Serbs revealing too many of your ugly omissions?

The beauty of ÒA Family of EightÓ by A. M. Rosenthal is mocked by the Times' total lack of sensitivity. ÒAll the News That's Fit to PrintÓ is a moronic motto the Times uses when, in fact, the paper practices yellow journalism! In more than 1,800 OpEd and articles written on the Bosnian war, not a single article was written by a Serbian scholar, author, educator or political leader, the Times muzzled the Serbian people with tactics reminiscent of Bonn, 1939.

All that seemed fit to print is propaganda, half truths, supposition, irresponsible journalism and outright lies and distortions. John Burns who won a Pulitzer prize for his coverage of the Bosnian war never managed to write a single story about a Serbian victim, and there are 44,000 of them, but this low life found his way to writing a story on how dogs in Bosnia were surviving the war. How proud you must be that your journalists are as insensitive as your editorial staff. May they rot in hell for their crimes of omission in this war.

I too, have a family story to share with the readers of this forum. I can trace my ancestors to the 17th century in the Serbian Krajina. In World War I, my family lost 32 members, victims of Germany's unchallenged appetite in a war in which the Serbian people lost 56% of their adult male population.

When the Second World War broke out, 17 members of my family were burned to death in a Serbian Orthodox church in the Serbian village of Vojnic, Yugoslavia in 1942, not by Nazi Germans, but by Nazi Croatians led by their Roman Catholic priests. They all escaped justice. I grew up with few relatives left in this generation, my brother, father, mother, one uncle and 5 cousins. That was all that was left of a family that numbered in the hundreds just 75 years ago. During the Krajina offensive on August 5th, 1995, the last 5 of my relatives in the world were found with their throats slit.

The only survivor was the 8 years-old daughter of my first cousin. Little Mila was diabetic and as a newly orphaned child she was sent to Pale where for the past two years every humanitarian organization in the world denied food, medicine and insulin to this child... she died a few months ago. I am a two-time victim of hatred, I stand here totally alone today, but nothing is as ugly as the hatred of a partisan press who muzzled my people and denied us a voice in the free world. Hatred is what killed my entire family and the New York Times exemplifies the depth to which these demonic ideas are capable of reaching.

William Dorich, President, SAVAÑSerbian American Voters Alliance, One Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, 15222, sava@idt.net (Founded in 1987).

Wm. Dorich is the author/compiler of the 1991 book, ÒSerbian Genocide 1941-45,Ó the 1992 book, ÒKosovo,Ó the 1994 book, ÒThe Suppressed Serbian Voice and the Free Press in America,Ó and the 1996 book, ÒA Brief History of Serbian Music.Ó He is a founding member of the Kosovo Charity Fund in association with IOCCÑInternational Orthodox Christian Charities and is the recipient of ÒThe Order of St. SavaÓ in 1997, the highest award given to a lay person by the Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox church.

kenavo - 01:40am May 6, 1997 EST (#2 of 3)

Dorich uses any excuse, whether germain or not, to propagate his usual lies and to make others feel guilty for daring to write or talk about anything other than his dumpy Serbia or his obsession about being a professional victim. "See me! See me! Oh, how I've suffered. Oh, how my people and my family have suffered. Waah, waah waah..."

Dorich, don't you and your sainted Serbs have any pride? I guess not. The self pity is nothing short of incredible. When you think and whine like a victim, you simply become one. Keep writing: you make good laughingstock.

sofija - 08:32am May 6, 1997 EST (#3 of 3)

Kenavo: Your response to Dorich pretty much sums up why there is such hate in the Balkans. You know, you can be totally against the political and historical perspectives of a particular side in the former Yugoslavia but you can still be sensitive to a single individual's plight. Since you are in such a jovial mood I thought I would thrill you some more. The humanitarian embargo against the Serbs also took my Uncle's life in Bosnia in Fall 1994 from an infection that simple antibiotics would have cured. He was 78, a sweet man who had Muslim and Croatian friends and voted for Fikret Abdic (a Muslim) in the 1990 elections. None of my Catholic or Muslim relatives seemed to have any problem getting antibiotics. In fact, some of them managed to smuggle in medicines to my Serb relatives all on their own. One of them even lives in Zagreb but I better not mention their name. Know what I mean?

Before I forget...the issue of Dr. Cohen's book "Serbia's Secret War." Has anyone wondered why of all academic presses that usually deal with Eastern European topics (Columbia, Indiana, MIT, Harvard, Yale, etc) it was the Texas A&M press that published this book? Hmmm.... let me see now. Over the past two years Texas A&M press has only published about 45-50 books per year, usually on Texas topics (see American University Presses annual directories over the past few years). But suddenly this press is doing the Balkans. I wonder if there is someone at the University in some department who has an inside track to this press? Wow...maybe I'm fantasizing but could it be that Dr. Cohen had a ghost writer or someone from Texas A&M who stood over his shoulder and directed the writing of the book? Gee whiz....now who could that be? And then, might this person have been one of the primary reviewers of the book? Oh my.....the plot sickens. I will let the folks who are interested do the detective work. Now what kind of academic would harbor that kind of rage?....I wonder.

Anyhow I have heard (just a rumor) that the Arabic version of Mein Kampf is Saddam Hussein's favorite book and I am sure Cohen's book is now a well-thumbed bible for some, as are books that only see the Serbian or Muslim point of view.

Steven Majstorovic

Duquesne University

END QUOTE